Light and dark shades

[Jleon99]

I could not enhance the bird with natural light.

[Bobobird]

Looking at the EXif data this was shot at f5.6, 1/1600, iso 400.

There are a couple of things to do in a similar situation in future.

The important thing here is not to blow out the sky but have the bird exposed properly.

Though not expert by any means these work for me most of the time either alone or in some combination - just experiment. Over time you will get the hang of it.

1. Meter for the sky, remember the settings, then meter the bird, then set camera to the mid-point of these readings.

2. Increase EV (if shooting in AV) by 1 or more stops to expose for the bird.

3. Expose properly for the bird, set the camera to take 3 bracketed shots at +1(or +2)/0/-1(or -2) and merge them in your editing software.

4. Reduce speed by shutter, aperture or iso.

Hope this helps.

[Jleon99]

I will try that next time. thank you.

[Photon Hacker]

I instead suggest to expose for sky and use a lower ISO sensitivity. In general, lower ISO sensitivities have a better signal to noise ratio and hence an higher dynamic range.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

Be careful not to go too low with shutter speed for fear of camera shake or subject movement blurring detail.

I wouldn't normally change the aperture to bracket because it will change the Depth of Field.

I also wouldn't, unless desperate (and this shot isn't desperate enough) shoot wide open - if this is an f/5.6 max lens, the shoot at f/8 or even f/11, but if it was an f/2.8 lens, then f/5.6 should be OK.

If this was a jpg capture, that is why you couldn't recover the shadow detail on this shot.
If you are not shooting RAW, now is the time to change

I have no fear of higher isos, yes they have higher dynamic range, but it will be academic if you are not shooting and post processing from RAW in my opinion.

My standard bird shooting iso is 400 in UK sunny weather, it has to be very bright for me to go down to 200 (native for our Nikon cameras) and I'll go to 800 without concern and 1600 if pushed to ensure I can maintain a high enough shutter speed and use f/8.

Cheers,

[Jleon99]

Great!
Thank you.